CN01: Feeding Children in a Starving System

The community I work with is full of parents doing the impossible math of survival. Balancing school, work, parenting, and the daily demands of capitalism.

My program budget is gone. It’s been gone. But we’re finding a way through because that’s what people do when they care about each other.

Still, the need keeps rising. Prices keep climbing. And the supports that were barely keeping families above water are being pulled away due to an impasse over whether we should provide [barely] affordable access to healthcare.

Early childhood programs, the ones that also feed children, aren’t being funded. Food assistance benefits are gone on Saturday.

And outside the social sector, people keep saying, “thank god we have food shelves,” send their $20, and move on with their days.

But Minnesota’s food shelves are trying to replace $74 MILLION a month in lost SNAP benefits to families with $4 million the state managed to find.

There are about 400 food shelves in Minnesota. If that money were split evenly, which it won’t be, that’s $10 thousand per food shelf.

Most food shelves only allow families to visit twice a month or make small weekly pickups. Many rarely have enough protein, allergy-friendly items or culturally specific foods. Well-meaning volunteers who have rarely needed to access these services often ration or gatekeep the most desired items in the name of “equity.” It’s not always dignified and it certainly isn’t enough.

We’re talking about starving adults going to work all day in demanding environments, children in critical years for brain development and health. We are trading their futures away in budget negotiations.

I keep hearing that there isn’t enough money, but there is.

There is always enough money for war.

For military weapons abroad.

For tax breaks and corporate subsidies.

We live in a country where destruction is endlessly funded and care is an afterthought.

I am tired.

Tired of pretending this is inevitable.

Tired of watching families ration food and hope.

Tired of a system that treats people as a line item to be reduced instead of a life to be nurtured.

We are not broke.

We are morally bankrupt.